I see what you're saying, but the problem with endless variable data chains is that someone has to create these endless variables, which is by nature impossible.

For instance, chess game AI is extremely impressive, but it's still a bunch of functions and limitations that were programmed in. Can you replicate the changes in intelligence that could occur in a human chess player when he/she is under pressure? You can't do that with AI because a programmer will have to program the concept of pressure.

Thus, as programmers attempt to create increasingly complex AI platforms, they discover that variables have their own sub-variables, and that these sub-variables have their own sub-variables! It's an impossibility that will never be solved.